The use of social media is now standard practice in museums of every discipline. However, is social media furthering our mission and goals? How do we measure success - number of followers? Are these even the right questions?

 

For answers, we went to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. In the cafeteria of Twitter, Inc., we had a chance to sit-down with James Buckhouse, Head of Corporate Design, and Ian Padgham, Corporate Design Specialist.

 

Neither are strangers to museums. James, a.k.a. @buckhouse, is an artist and animator whose work was in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Ian, @origiful, is also an exhibiting artist, videographer, and former social media staff member at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  He was so good at his job that Twitter hired him away.

 

MMC asked their opinion of what connotes success in using social media.  Their answer was clear - success is measured not only in numbers but in the quality of the engagement. As examples, they pointed to @AskAConductor, a real-time and global Twitter event whereby conductors answered questions from fans, as well as SFMOMA's successful Twitter campaign which linked the art museum to fans of the San Francisco Giants. The bottom line:  museums, like Twitter, are just tools to reach, build, inspire, and involve communities.  

 

Here is their advice, which they tweeted, on doing a better job with both:

• "Take your message to the choir AND seek out non-believers"   
• "Bring art to people rather than expect them to come to you"  
• "Get humble/do something stunning"
• "Ignite thought"